


With Nothing in the Way

by Larkawolfgirl



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Afterlife, M/M, Post-Canon, implied ot4 - Freeform, mention of Nyx/Luna
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-25
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-19 14:35:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11899785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Larkawolfgirl/pseuds/Larkawolfgirl
Summary: Regis’ entire face softened. “You are finally free. Nothing is standing in your way any longer.”“Free to do what?” Noctis asked.“Anything. You may meet with whoever you like or do anything you desire. You, more than anyone, have earned it.”





	With Nothing in the Way

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Noctis Week day 1: To My Younger Self. I wrote this pretty fast without any preconceived plan, so I hope it flows okay. I also didn’t edit it after finishing since I wanted to get it up before the day was over, so I’m really sorry if there are typos.

Regrets. The word is insubstantial in comparison to the chord it strikes within Noctis. He’s standing before Bahamut again, the Draconian’s aura just as overpowering as last time. Again, he feels as if he’s being dissected, judged for every decision he’s ever made as his life flashes against the backdrop surrounding them. The difference here is that it no longer matters. His life is over, his job is done. Bahamut can no longer revoke his birthright. Still, Noctis can’t help wanting to make him proud, as ludicrous as it is. He doesn’t owe Bahamut anything, but in some strange way, it would make up for failing his father so many times in the past.

Bahamut raises a mighty hand. He could literally crush Noctis into oblivion, but he lifts him up and forward for closer inspection. “How would you deem your life’s worth?”

There he went, sounding like a god again—of course he was a god, but he’d done little to earn reverence. “Everyone drilled my importance into me for as long as I could remember, but I never thought so. Sure, I was gonna be king, and later I found out I was the only one who could stop the Scourge. But I was just a kid who wanted friends and a family like everyone else. I was lazy and a brat, but I did what I had to do.”

“This is not a matter of whether or not you succeeded, this is about your regrets. What would you have done differently.”

Noctis considered this for a long time. He had a lot, but most of them didn’t have to do with his duty. “I would have found a way to Altissia sooner to save Luna.”

“Is this all?” Bahamut’s gaze bore into him as if willing him for unrestrained honesty.

Noctis’ shoulders heaved with a sigh. “Alright. I would have done so much different if I’d known how little time I had. I would’ve told everyone how much I cared and made sure to spend more time with them.”

Bahamut’s face was unreadable. “This takes precedence over your duties?”

“No, well, yes. I still would have saved everyone, but yeah, that’s what I regret more. That I never reunited with Luna before she died, that I never made up with Dad, the simple stuff.”

Bahamut lifted him to an inch from his face. All Noctis could see was his enormous eye fixated on him. “Is this truly your answer?”

He refused to be intimated now of all times. “Yes,” he said, voice steady, head high.

“Noctis Lucis Caelum, I proclaim you worthy.”

With a sweep of his hand, Noctis was released into thin air. He tumbled and tumbled, and after a while he wondered if that would be the end. A continuous fall into the loop of his life. As he watched the film before him, disjointed scenes played out. All the moments he had come to regret. The nonchalance when he told his father goodbye. The distance he created between them after moving out as a safe guard against having to accept his own feelings. Never writing anything of importance to Luna. Letting Prompto ignore him all the way until middle school. Always giving Ignis such a hard time and never once thanking him for caring about the stuff he didn’t (like his diet). Not communicating better with Gladio after Altissia. Letting his own pain get in the way of theirs. Not being there for Ignis as he should have. Knocking Prompto off the train. Not saving him sooner. But finally, he ceased moving and the space surrounding him faded into endless white. There was still silence.

Just when he wondered if this white would be the end, a voice broke through. “You’ve grown well, my son.”

Tears sprung to Noctis’ eyes, and he quickly blinked them away. “Dad?”

Regis appeared through the whiteness, looking young and healthy again. Noctis hadn’t seen him look like this since he was ten, and nostalgia overtook him. Regis smiled before throwing an arm around him in a hug. Noctis could no longer blink back the tears and just let himself cry there in his father’s arms. For the first time since leaving him to go to Altissia, he truly felt safe and protected.

“Sorry,” he said, finally pulling back and wiping at his tear stains.

Regis chuckled, wiping at his own tears that Noctis had not realized. “You’ve done well.”

“I had to. Just like you had to do your duty.” His voice came out chocked at the end.

“I know it was hard, especially since I didn’t warn you. I thought it would be easier on you that way.” Regis’ brow creased. “Was I wrong?”

“I understand why you did. If I’d known, I’d never have left.”

“Your safety has always been the most important thing.” Regis’ smile was rueful and Noctis understood the implication. He had never made Noctis’ happiness his top priority.

“Dad, I don’t blame you. For anything. You did what you thought was best in everything.”

Regis chuckled again. “Here I thought I was coming to cheer you up, not the other way around.”

“You did. Ever since I heard the news, all I’ve wanted to do is see you one last time.”

Regis’ entire face softened. “This is not the last time. You are finally free. Nothing is standing in your way any longer.”

That was a lot to take in considering his life up to this point. His life had been planned out from the start. Never had he deluded himself that he could make any real decisions for himself. Not who he could love or what he would do in the future. As a child, he was restricted to the Citadel, and as he grew older came obligations. Leaving Insomnia was the most freedom he’d ever had, and even then, he had to remain in hiding.

“Free to do what?” he finally asked.

“Anything. You may meet with whoever you like or do anything you desire. You, more than anyone, have earned it.”

Noctis was awestruck.

“I’ll leave you to it then.” Noctis opened his mouth to object, but Regis waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “I’ll always be here when you want me. Go on. Broaden your horizons.” Not a moment later, he fizzled into the white void.

Then a laugh chimed out. High and boisterous. A grin spread across Noctis’ face even before blonde hair and a freckled face appeared from nowhere. Prompto was grinning just as wide, if not wider. He sprinted to him, throwing an arm over his shoulders as he tugged him to his side. “Dude! I’ve missed you!”

“Huh?” Wait, Prompto shouldn’t be dead yet. Had he failed to save them in time?

He must have frowned, because Prompto waved his free hand in the air. “Nah, relax. It’s been, what? Thirty years or something?”

“How?” It felt as if he had just died. But then he remembered that his ten years in the crystal had flew by as well.

Prompto shrugged. “I’m not complaining. So, what’d I miss?”

“You? I should be asking you that.”

Prompto’s grin turned into a smirk. “Can you believe me and Iggy got together?”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope. Actually, we kinda got together before you came back. End of the world and all that.”

Thinking back on it, Prompto had enjoyed helping Ignis cook and he had self-appointed himself his caretaker after he lost his sight. “I’d never have guessed.”

“Iggy’s a bit of a shell to crack, but with you out of the picture it was only a matter of time. Oh.” Prompto stepped back looking like he’d said more than he intented.

“What do you mean?”

He waved his hand again. “No! Ask him about it. I’m not getting put in the dog house again. I’m still sore from last time.”

Noctis was instantly struck by unwanted images. “Too much information.”

Prompto snickered. “Sorry.”

“So, uh, how would I even ask him?”

“I was told all you gotta do to make something happen is focus on it happening. So, I tried it, and that’s how I got here.”

“Okay, here goes.” Noctis closed his eyes and thought about Ignis. (A clothed and decent Ignis).

When he opened his eyes, his advisor of old was standing there. He was as young as he remembered, seeing and free of facial scars. He was also crying.

“I’ve waited all these years.”

Noctis lowered his head. “Sorry for making you wait.”

Ignis placed a hand to his cheek. “You let me live a long life, Noct. Don’t apologize for that. Though,” he lowered his own head, “I would have liked to have shared it with you.”

Noctis swallowed the lump in his throat. “Prompto said you and he are a couple.”

Ignis looked away as if he were ashamed. “Yes. Ten years without you was a long time, and forty was even longer.”

“Don’t sweat it, Specs. I’m glad you guys found happiness together, you deserved it.”

Ignis dropped his hand. “Yes.”

“Specs? Something the matter?”

Ignis was silent for a long time, before heaving a sigh. “It was always you, Noctis. Did you really never notice?”

At first, he was confused, but then it made sense why Prompto could only make leeway in his absence. “Gods, Iggy! Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

“It was not my place to.”

Noctis messaged his temple. “Guess I’m not the only one with regrets.”

“Hardly.”

“Hey,” Ignis meet his gaze again, “I would have said yes.”

Ignis released a long breath as if releasing years of doubts. “Noct, I…”

Noctis decided that was as good a time to kiss him as any. Ignis was slow to react, but when he did, his hand found his cheek again. He held onto him with equal parts care and desperation. As if he was his means of survival.

When they pulled back, Noctis cradled his face with both hands. “Have I ever told you you’re beautiful?”

Ignis laughed. “No, you have not.”

Noctis chuckled. “About Prompto—”

“You needn’t worry about him.”

“But—”

Then as if called by their conversation (which he likely was), Prompto was there again. And he did not seem surprised by their close proximity, much to Noctis’ own.

“Woo!” he whistled. “Finally, laying it all out there, Iggy?”

Ignis stepped away from Noctis so that he could take Prompto’s hand, which he promptly kissed on the knuckles. “Thank you for the push, love.”

Prompto blushed at the endearment. “See,” he gushed excitedly, “told ya you never had anything to worry about.”

Ignis turned back to Noctis with a grin. “Yes, you were quite right.”

“Hold up, Prom, you don’t care that he still likes me?”

Prompto broke out in a laughing fit, which proved contagious because Ignis was soon laughing as well. “Sorry,” he wheezed out once he’d gotten himself mostly under control. “It’s just funny that you never realized. Dude, we’ve all been in love with you since like forever.”

“All of you?”

“Me, Iggy, Gladio, Luna. Though, I think Luna’s was more of a childhood crush. She’s totally fine with Nyx now.”

There was only so much life altering information a brain could take in within a short period, and Noctis felt like he had exceeded it. “Wait, you’re telling me all three of you have been in love with me this whole time?”

“You are quite loveable.”

Noctis leaned back, and amazingly, a solid wall-like structure materialized to support him. “Gods, as if I didn’t already have enough regrets.”

“Dude!” Prompto exclaimed. “Don’t think like that. Think about the now. We’re all here.”

“Oh, yeah! Where’s Gladio?” Noctis asked.

Prompto shrugged. “Somewhere. Just call him up.”

Noctis still wasn’t sure how he could act so casually about this situation, but he focused on calling Gladiolus to them instead. When he did emerge, Noctis was less surprised this time by his young appearance. Actually, Gladio was the one that looked surprised. His eyes widened and he stalked over to Noctis so heavily Noctis was worried he was about to deck him in the face. Instead, he tugged him up by the scruff of his royal suit and kissed him. Not the way Ignis had either. This was all fierce passion. Gladio’s hands tangled in his hair, holding him locked in the kiss until he allowed them to break apart. Noctis felt winded when he finally did.

“Hello to you, too,” he said lamely.

“Don’t you ever leave me again!” Gladio was glaring, but his eyes were filled with such hurt, Noctis was compelled to touch his shoulder comfortingly.

“I promise that I won’t.” He stared into Gladio’s eyes sincerely before turning to Ignis and Prompto in turn. “I don’t ever want to leave you guys again.”

Prompto’s smile looked shaky when he said, “Stop, you’re gonna make me cry.”

Gladio’s hands tightened on the back of his head. “I’m holding you to it.”

Ignis came back over and placed his head against the back of his shoulder. “It’s good to have you back, Noct.”

“I’m glad to be back.” Noctis let his eyes slip closed. Freedom sounded like a good way to spend eternity.


End file.
